Halo: The Utah Event
by JCM42899
Summary: In progress...


Overview

The year is 2557, it has been five years since the Human-Covenant War ended, starting with the attack of Harvest in 2525 and ending with the damaging of The Ark in 2552. Humanity is in a state of rebuild and has issued new research ships to explore the spaces of the frontier to find and develop new worlds for the UEG. One of these research groups, code-named _Montana_ , the largest group, has disappeared without a trace. A destroyer named the _Utah_ has been assigned a refit and a combat group to locate the _Montana_ 's group. The crew is wary of the danger this presents as no group since the _Montana_ has gone this far out… or so they think.

Character Sheet

 **Master Chief Petty Officer Jeffery Mosdell** \- Spartan IV and team leader of Fireteam Grizzly, Codename Kodiak. A large man even before his entrance into the SPARTAN program, he has an outstanding CSV acquired during his years of service within the UNSC's elite force of ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers). He is a methodical thinker, bordering on being inordinately slow, but when he is needed by those under his care he is immediate in his response. Can sometimes indulge in dangerous habits. Can be recalcitrant to those in command of him, especially those he deems unintelligent and undeserving of their prestige.

 **Captain Joshua Mosdell** \- Captain of the UNSC _Valiant_ -class heavy cruiser _Utah_ , younger brother of Jeff. Joshua used to be taller than Jeffery standing at 6'2", but is now dwarfed in size by his older brother. Joshua fought in the ODST forces alongside his brother for only a few months before they were stationed at opposite ends of the galaxy. Joshua earned his position as Captain after he showed extreme prowess in piloting a small _Stalwart_ -class frigate out of harm's way during the attack on Reach, after its Captain had been killed during the initial bombardment. Joshua is very similar in thinking as his brother, but is quicker on acting. Has an aversion to violence, but if faced with no other option is a force to be reckoned with. Extremely loyal, but not blindly so. Has a sarcastic wit that can border on sardonic.

 **Captain Silas Graves** \- Captain of the _Texas_ , best friend and fellow navy graduate with Joshua Mosdell. Silas Graves's descendants hail from the harsh frontier that was the American Midwest during the many brush wars on Earth in the 22nd century. His history is a rough one that reads like a penny dreadful. He was raised in the Chicago Industrial Zone, the product of a loving relationship, he was cherished by his parents being their first, and sadly only, child. Silas's father was killed, by his estranged brother who had joined the Insurrectionist forces, when Silas was only five. Silas's mother then hurriedly moved him to an aunt who lived on the planet Sigma Octanus IV, in the capital of Cote d'Azur. Silas never saw his mother again and presumed she died. Silas joined the Navy the moment he was of age and went on to become one of the highest decorated officers during the Human-Covenant War. He is a determined man who is cold and calculating. But not without his moments of lightheartedness. His demeanor has earned him the nickname "Silent Graves" from his subordinates.

 **Captain Jonathan Daniels** \- Captain of the _Alaska_. Fellow Navy graduate with Joshua Mosdell and Silas Graves. Jonathan Daniels life was an easy one being raised in the city of New Phoenix on Earth. He was put into the UNSC officers program at the young age of seventeen. He was the one of the youngest officers to assume command of military vessel and went on to be one of the hardest fighting Captains during the battles at Reach and Earth.

 **Captain Alistair Grayson** \- Captain of the _Massachusetts_. A small man at only 5' 6", but carries himself with an air of regality, he is much older than the other Captains as he taught them everything they know during their years in Officers School. A descendant from a family of European nobles, who were members of the Knights of the Round Table. Can be abrasive with his personality, but when the going gets tough he can be as fierce as an angered bear.

 **Fleet Master Ceka 'Zomusee** \- Fleet Master of the fleet _A Daring Leap_ , and Ship Master of _A_ _Light Shining in Darkness_. One of the few Sangheili who remained skeptical of the San'shyuum even before The Great Schism. He is a brilliant tactician who has never faltered once in battle. He has been praised personally by Thel Vadamee, AKA The Arbiter, for his bravery during the fight above the former Holy City of High Charity and Installation 05 (Delta Halo).

 **Damara** \- Spartan IV and sniper for Fireteam Grizzly. Not much is known about Damara's past, and she prefers it that way. What little is known is that she was raised in the Outer Colonies by her parents util her mother was killed in Insurrectionist firebombing targeting UNSC citizens forcing Damara and her father to flee to the safety of Reach. Damara and her father lived peacefully in the mountains of Reach for years. It was here that Damara learned to use a rifle, practicing on the small game near her home. She eventually left to join the ODSTs at the urging of her father. Sadly this meant that she was not present to help evacuate her father from the surface during the Covenant invasion. The experience embittered Damara. She was approached by Jun, a Spartan III to be one of the new Spartans. She readily accepted.

* * *

Chapter One

GeoSync orbit over Eos Chasma, Mars

Military Calendar: December 5, 2556

Military Time: 1845 hours

" _Utah_ , please access Starboard Dock 5." The deck officer said.

"Roger that RP-Alpha, _Utah_ out." Captain Joshua Mosdell stood over the controls of his destroyer manually maneuvering the warship into the cavity of the monstrously large repair platform that hung in the geosynchronous orbit of Mars. He felt a small jolt from the attitude thrusters and smiled. His ships AI, Titus, was being his usual casual self and was gently repositioning the ship if it got out of control, Josh wasn't worried about his ability to pilot the Destroyer in but it was nice to have a helping hand whenever it was needed.

Titus was an incredibly young Smart AI having only been activated last month, but AIs aged quickly since they only last seven years, but still it was nice to have a fresh AI on board. Even more so after the last one had almost caused the ship to plummet into a small moon. Which is why we were here at the Martian shipyard for repairs and maintenance.

We needed new Titanium-A plating, stealth panels, Shaw-Fujikawa drive, MAC driver and about fifty new point defense guns. I was hoping I could get new MAC guns as well.

Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (MAC guns, ignore the redundancy) are basically giant rail guns that fire huge shells made out of either scrap metal or Tungsten alloy, and the shells can be fired at such a velocity that they can penetrate even the strongest Titanium-A plating and keep going. Besides that Josh's Destroyer had hard points for four of the massive cannons to be installed, and each cannon was a prototype Super MAC that was capable of firing four shots successively, and the recoil dampers installed in them would keep them from ripping the ship apart hopefully. It took him months to get the Admiralty to agree to my addition of two more MACs on top of the ones he already had, but the few engagements the _Utah_ had been in had been massive successes and were over in moments.

As he was leaving the dry dock Josh received a transmission from ONI Section Three, and a face popped up on screen that was wrinkled from years of looking at data and casualty reports from the long years that were the Human-Covenant War.

"Captain Mosdell, how are you?" said the spook who had watched me like a hawk the last few years of my life.

"Fine," Josh said. "You wouldn't call me unless you needed something Rogers, so what do you want?"

"Captain, there's been a situation with the _Montana_ forward exploration group. We need you to find the _Montana's_ research group." His face was crisscrossed with lines of worry and upon further inspection he looked significantly older than he actually appeared. Josh never knew Roger's actual age, ONI was always tight-lipped about personal info.

"You mean to tell me that one of the largest research groups ever built by the UNSC just up and disappeared?" He was confused at the news.

"That's exactly what happened." He said with that indifferent tone that all spooks have, but with hints of anger, Rogers wasn't a heartless ONI spook that cared little about other humans. "They were on a reconnaissance mission exploring a new system that showed promise for colonization when we lost contact with them. The last report we received from them put them pretty far out of UNSC space."

Josh absorbed the news as if it were a punch to the gut, the _Montana_ wasn't the same as any of the other frigates in the UNSC fleet, but it still was shocking that it had disappeared with all hands on deck. And some of those crewmen were family. Burgess interrupted Josh's thoughts with his new orders.

"Captain we need the _Utah_ , _Texas_ , _Alaska_ , and _Massachusetts_ to investigate their last known position and find out what happened to our men and women aboard that ship."

"When do we meet up?" I asked.

"You meet up tomorrow. So muster your crew when the repairs are finished and gather your battlegroup, Lord Hood gave you and the other captains a new fleet for this op. And one other thing."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Be careful out there. We've lost enough brilliant tacticians and Spartans to the war with the Covenant." Rogers' comment made Josh think of me and my team down in the armory, inventorying our new gear. Rogers sent a data worm and erased any evidence of their conversation.

Josh approached me as I was leaving the Mess Hall after a well deserved meal after my daily workout.

"Jeff, we have an issue. ONI Sec Three needs us again." His tone was somber and morose.

I looked towards the bulk heads leading towards the Armory sections of the ship wanting nothing more than to be left alone with the War Games simulations. "If the spooks need us to do their bidding again by helping Lethbridge or another one of those corporations help in a shadow war, then they can blow it out their asses." My team, as well as many other Spartan teams, had become a phantom menace in the industrial zones of Earth. This was due to the fact that since the Spartan IV program was made a public affair, many of the once industrial corporations spent millions upon millions of credits producing their own Spartan armor. My team was frequently used to either help or sabotage some other corporations ability to make Spartan armor.

Josh looked at me dead in the eyes. "Jeff the _Montana_ dissapeared a few weeks ago with all hands. ONI wants us to be acting SAR if we find anything." Josh said.

A while back I had been approached by some ONI agents who were impressed with my CSV and wanted me for the next generation of Spartans. As part of the SPARTAN IV project I was picked from hundreds of candidates in the ranks of elite ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) and trained to be one of the most lethal soldiers among hundreds of others. I had a choice of whether or not to join, but my choice was already made to join up, plus my brother, Josh, had already joined the project so whether I wanted to or not I had to go, so my brother didn't get himself killed or worse. Thankfully we had ended up in the same team of Spartans, which I knew wasn't a coincidence by any stretch of the imagination. Even my teammates were all people I had served with at some point in time during the war. It just reinforced the point that the UNSC was gearing up for the next big war and weren't excited to have another genocidal enemy make it into their homes like the Covenant had.

I entered the destroyer armory to see Grizzly team running some maintenance on their armor and weapons and helping our new recruit Seamus O'Connor into his armor to test it out. They stood at attention.

"Officer on deck." James said as he snapped off a crisp salute and the others followed suit, except Seamus who was having issues with his suits gauntlet calibration. James was my second-in-command during my time in the ODST forces, and he was always behind me when we were in a tangle whether it was a tangle with armed soldiers or getting him away from the Scorpion tanks in the vehicle bay. He was probably the best weapons specialist I had ever had on a team and that made him invaluable on long haul missions.

"At ease Grizzly," I said, "We have a new mission from ONI Three." I noticed Seamus' plight and went over to help reset the diagnostics. As per usual in the Spartan Program we had rudimentary knowledge of how the systems worked and could perform basic field maintenace if need be.

They all perked their ears up when I mentioned the black ops section of ONI. It was something that anyone who served in the UNSC had gotten used to hearing and fearing to a degree. Even with my back turned I could feel the tension reach a fever pitch.

My best scout and trapper, Damara, spoke up first. "So what's the mission from the almighty bureaucrats and spooks at ONI? Crushing another rebellion or fighting another genocidal alien conglomerate?" Damara had always had a rough edge that you couldn't ignore. She had lost her mother to the Insurrectionists during a fire bombing of UNSC homes and businesses and her father had gone down fighting the Covenant on Reach. I was there for the latter.

I finished helping Seamus calibrate the gauntlets to his suit. "Thankfully neither of those are what's on the menu. What is on the menu is going to the rear end of the universe to find the _Montana_ forward exploration group." I was still angry at whoever had attacked a ship with little to no defenses, but I concealed my anger.

"So the Admiralty wants us to find these poor souls who ventured into the unknown and got lost." Grant, the team medic and tech head, had had one too many brushes with the dark side of the Admiralty. Once he was court martialed falsely as an enemy to the UNSC and was sentenced to three lifetimes in prison and was to be interrogated by ONI agents. Of course they never found anything that proved him guilty of the crimes he supposedly committed. Ever since then he's had a very bitter attitude towards the the Admiralty, and ONI Section Three. "I hate how they just love to condemn innocent souls to unfair punishments." Grant said bitterly.

"But these orders come from Lord Hood himself. Not the Brass Hats." I had come up with this little nickname after a particularly difficult official had given me heat for rescuing civilians during the war.

"But it doesn't change my view on the idiots who run this government or the people who are supposed to be working to make life better not a livin-"

"Grant that's enough!" I said. "I want you to lock it down and stow it _now_."

Grant gave me a hard look. "Yes sir."

Everyone in the room looked at me and Grant. Then Seamus spoke up.

"Let's all calm down a tad before we end up at each others throats, like a pack of Grunts." Seamus' Scottish brogue sounded calming and eloquent which helped to calm Grant down a bit. Plus Seamus is built like a teddy bear who can bench a Warthog, so there's that.

* * *

Chapter Two

UNSC _Utah_ at Border Station Bravo

Military Calendar: January 1, 2557

Military Time: 0030 hours

I stood on one of the view points on Station Bravo and observed my fleet. The Destroyer I normally piloted had been replaced with a fresh _Valiant_ -class super-heavy cruiser.

My supporting ships were four _Autumn_ -class heavy cruisers loaded to bear with two Super Macs, two-hundred-fifty YSS-1000 Sabre fighters, recommissioned after the Admiralty realised their usefulness, and plenty of other armaments and supplies to last them at least ten years.

The next ships I inspected were three _Gorgon_ -class heavy destroyers which were for support and fast attack. These ships were the ones I had piloted. Then there were the lightweights of my battle group, but some of the most important, six _Paris_ -class heavy frigates and six _Stalwart_ -class light frigates. These frigates were carrying the bulk of our fighters and vehicles and were going to be incredibly beneficial for future battles if any were to arise.

We hadn't expected such a fleet, but the _Texas, Alaska, and Massachusetts_ had all gotten the same treatment. The captains aboard them had had their Destroyers replaced with _Valiants_ as well and had gotten the same fleets, but with a few variations on the ships. They were supposed to arrive at 0400 hours which gave me plenty of time to go over my _Valiant_ cruiser's armaments.

I boarded the rechristened _Utah_ and immediately went to the bridge to inspect the ship properly and to make sure my Spartan's and the two other teams that had been assigned to the _Utah's_ battle group were happy with the new selection of weapons and other armaments available to them, a good quality of any captain is make sure his or her men are comfortable and relaxed, but not so lax that they forget that they are Marines.

The bridge was abuzz with lots of activity as everyone got settled into the new bridge environment and at my request I had them transfer Titus from the _Utah_ Destroyer into the cruiser, and without skipping a beat the instant he was finished being hooked up he did a quadruple check on all calculations while monitoring the crew as they set up their stations, but there was a slight tick in his image, something that no one else noticed but it was there and it made me worried.

While Titus handled things on the bridge I went down to the armory to inspect the weapons, and needless to say I was thoroughly impressed. MA5D ICWS, BR85HB SR Battle Rifles, M45D Tac Shotguns, SRS99-S5 AM Sniper Rifles, a wide selection of M6 Series pistols, M7 SMGs, M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launchers, and a whole slew of captured Covenant weapons.

Like I said thoroughly impressed.

Next came my favorite part of the ship, the ship's armaments. Whereas the Destroyer had only two MACs this _Valiant_ had four of the new Super MACs, a much smaller caliber, but they could fire four successive shots, hundreds of point defense guns and enough Archer and Shiva warheads to ignite a star into a supernova. The _Valiant_ cruiser had a large compliment of fighters, dropships, plus experimental shield generators in case she needed to be used for ship-to-ship combat.

My thoughts of the new tech aboard my ship were interrupted when I heard klaxon alarms sound and Titus alert the crew that we had incoming ships and I rushed for the lift to the bridge.

"Jeff we got a problem down in the launch bay, need you ASAP!" said Chief Engineer Hotchkiss, probably one of the best engineers that ever graced the UNSC ranks and whenever he said there was a problem it made me sick. He only reported major problems.

"Hotch" I yelled over the ship's com channels "What's the problem?" I had just entered the launch bay that held most of our Long Sword and Sabre fighters to see a few dozen fierce looking Covie soldiers, but none of them seemed to have any weapons on their persons, but my inspection was interrupted by an enormous Sangheili, known as Elites, wearing gold armor that signified his rank as a Fleet Master. He slowly approached me.

"My name is Ceka 'Zomusee Fleet Master of the ship _Light In Shining Darkness_."

I was startled at the Sangheili, but I admired his methods of presenting himself. He presented all of the troops under his command in one fell swoop and had positioned his ships at strategic positions around the station so we could get a good long look at them. He was definitely well armed. But what confused me is that all Sangheili commander was supposed to go back to Sanghelios to protect it.

"Fleet Master I am honored that you would give your fleet to aid us in our mission, but how did you know that this operation was even going on?" I was heavily perplexed at how he had acquired our operation details.

"Spartan, I shall explain how we came to know of your mission if you would grace us with your presence on my capital ship."

Ceka 'Zomusee had been ordered by his superior, Thel 'Vadamee AKA The Arbiter, to assist my fleet in our mission. I had questioned the authenticity of this, but Lord Terrence Hood himself had authorized this after I called him, along with The Arbiters blessing so I had just gained twenty incredibly powerful Sangheili ships, that would increase our firepower exponentially which I was thankful for immensely. I was never one to turn down extra fire power, even if it was a bit difficult to accept help from my former enemy.

'Zomusee ordered three of his best Ship Masters to leave fifteen, five for each Ship Master, of the ships for the _Texas_ , _Alaska_ , and _Massachusetts_ while the last five ships stayed with the Utah to aid us in our frontier expeditions.

Most of the crew had spent the last few year of their lives fighting the very aliens we were now allying with, needless to say tensions were high aboard the _Utah_. My Marines knew better than to shoot at friendlies, but that didn't stop them from speaking their mind on our new allies.

"It's BS that we have to fight _with_ them instead of fighting _against_ them."

This was the fifteenth crewman to argue against having former Covenant soldiers fight with us and now it was my brother who came to butt heads with me on the matter.

"Josh listen to me. They aren't the enemy any more, the enemy now is human." I paused to let that sink into my brothers mind. "And to me that is far more deadly than droves of religious zealots hell bent on our destruction."

Josh took my words into consideration and looked into the depths of space through the viewscreen in my quarters. He always did this when he was deep in thought and sometimes he'd be there for hours on end without moving a muscle

"Alright Jeff, I'll tell the men to drop their baggage out the airlock and if they don't comply then I'll drop _them_ out the airlock." He had his usual mischievous grin on his boyish face and his eyes were the same deep blue that mine were, the same eyes that had watched billions burn to death at the hands of the Covenant and the same eyes that had watched the same near invincible enemy run like roaches in the light after humanity had risen up and taken the fight to them and killed their leaders.

We were brothers to the end no matter what we said to each other no matter what this endless universe decided to throw at us.

The next two weeks was a good change of pace for all the men in ONI's secret battle groups as it gave the men and women of the UNSC a chance to talk to the former Covenant soldiers which included not only the Sangheili, but also included the bird-like Kig Yar or Jackals, Unggoy or Grunts, and Fleet Master 'Zomusee's ranks even included twenty pairs of Mgalekgolo which are colonies of dozens of worms that bind together in hulking suits of armor to make themselves into walking tanks with the armor and weapons to match. I had been on the receiving end of a Hunter's fuel rod cannon and had almost lost my life because of it.

Thankfully the fleet also included the mechanical savants known as Huragok, Engineers to the spooks at ONI, who had been ordered by 'Zomusee to help out Hotch and the mechanics in the vehicle bays with maintenance and repairs, and no one was complaining with the extra help, neither were any of the other ships in the battle groups.

The Huragok made short work out of any little problem and even increased our engine efficiency by twenty percent within the first hour of them having boarded the ship and that would make all the difference in the days to come.

* * *

Chapter Three

UNSC _Utah_ in Slipspace

Military Calendar: January 15, 2557

Military Time: Slipspace anomalies prevent time recording

One of the best and yet worst things about the long travel times of slipspace is cryosleep which basically is you getting into a tube stark naked and being turned into a human popsicle.

You have to get in naked, otherwise any fabric still in contact with your skin will make it blister and irritate your skin severely. But once you wake up you have to swallow this awful sludge that catches you up on the lost nutrients and proteins that your body lost while frozen. The eggheads of the UNSC keep changing the "flavor" of it every so often, the last batch was like lime mucus, but this batch tasted like lemon curd and fish paste.

It isn't that bad and there are worse ways to spend your time in Slip Space, but it still isn't comfortable. It can be a little disorienting when you first wake up, but that quickly passes once you throw up on the deck and gain a sense of the artificial gravity and what direction you're facing. But it gets really interesting when you get woken up during the middle of a battle and you're trying to throw on your gear while trying not to upchuck anything you ate last Thanksgiving.

Thankfully this wasn't this wasn't the case, just a standard departure sequence into the _Montana_ 's last known position.

"So what's the plan Cap?" asked James.

He was always a little apprehensive before we entered a possible combat zone and I understood it perfectly.

"We go in fast and then post up and scan for signs of radiation from the reactor cores and anything else that'll tell us if our boys went anywhere." James got that look in his eyes when he was ready for a good fight.

"Theres the 2IC that beat me in PT all those years ago." We started laughing from the good times we had had in Boot and Basic when the proximity alarm went off for the port side of the _Utah_ , James and I were on the starboard side. We were on the bridge two minutes later to get a view at what was setting off the proximity alarms when Titus blew the emergency thrusters on the port side to move us out of the way of a massive chunk of debris that grazed the ship barely.

When the emergency thrusters on a ship as big as a _Valiant_ go off they throw anyone not sitting strapped in into the bulkheads hard enough to put you out of commission for a while.

"Titus, a little more warning would be good," I stopped short as I realised what that chunk of space garbage was that had almost hit us. It was the fore section of the _Montana_.

The forward recon group that had contained the _Montana_ and her three support ships were nothing but floating husks of destroyers and frigates. "This wasn't a battle between two sides, this was a massacre." I said.

I had seen planets glassed by the Covenant, had paid witness to the cremation of billions over the last fifteen years, but this hit me on a level that made me realize that we were going back to the timeless battle of human against human for the umpteenth time. "Helm activate sensors, high intensity. If the _Montana's_ black box is still active it'll be putting out a frequency only we can pick up." I didn't like where this black op had taken us. The very edge of UNSC explored space with very little tactical info on the situation at hand, to me it looked like the perfect setup for an ambush.

"Sir, we have contacts lighting up our sensors. Their IFF tags read as UNSC ships _Texas, Alaska,_ and _Massachusetts_. The captains are hailing us." said Titus.

"Alright Titus, open the hail on encrypted channel Foxtrot-Tango with passcode _KingOfTheHill_." I had hoped that the other cruisers and their battle groups would have waited for me to get back to report.

I opened the channel to see my fellow captains looking well rested whereas I looked like a an unkempt mess. "Good heavens Jeff, you look like you've been through the gauntlet." said Captain Jonathan Daniels, captain of the _Alaska_ , a short and broad sized man whose features played him off as a bit rough around the edges, but he was one the nicest and cool headed officers that you could find in the ranks of the UNSC navy.

"Well thank you for giving me the boost I needed this," I looked to my watch to get a reading on the time and it read 16:14 Military Time, "Evening." I said in a rather sarcastic tone. It was enough to elicit a chuckle from the captain of the _Texas,_ Silas Graves. I have that effect on people.

"You sure know how to put the humour into an otherwise grave situation." Graves said with a smile.

Me and Silas had been friends for as long as we both could remember after we had nearly beaten the tar out of each other in high school after a little misunderstanding over a simple joke during our freshman year. Silas had always been an immovable stone wall of pure strength that had been hardened after years in the UNSC Navy. I was more than happy to have the bear of a man part of this op.

"Well all humour aside it certainly would be nice to know where the Elite ships are that Fleet Master 'Zomusee sent you." It was time to get back to serious business.

"Don't worry Jeff, the Elites and their fleets are coming soon. They had some last minute issues to deal with before they could jump to slip space. But they assured me that they wouldn't be more than a day behind us." Daniels said.

"Good. I've got a plan on what we can do to get into the _Montana_ , but we'll need the Elites help to get aboard."

I had fought against my fellow man only a few times before in small skirmishes with Insurrectionist remnants. One of the few things I was glad for was that the weapons used were human and left plenty of the _Montana_ to be explored, but the aft section of the ship had been completely decimated during the battle, but the bow sections were surprisingly undamaged. I had expected the bow to be decompressed, but preliminary scans revealed atmosphere still inside the bridge along with faint heat and electronic signals. I didn't get my hopes up to high, I wasn't expecting to get anyone out alive from this mess. Boy was I wrong.

* * *

Chapter Four

UNSC _Utah_ outside known UNSC space

Military Date: January 18, 2557

Military Time: 0730 hours

I awoke in my cabin to the steady thrum of the _Utah's_ engines in my quarters and to Titus waiting to give me the daily brief on what had transpired during my down time. Nothing overly interesting just weapons checks and sensor scans, but then he mentioned that the _Montana's_ computer systems had started beaming transmission bursts to the _Utah's_ conning tower with after action reports, anomalous material records, ship-to-ship contact reports and some heavily coded communiques from somewhere deep into the unknown territories.

"Titus I need you to decrypt these communiques, it may shed some light on this new human enemy of ours." I said.

"No problem Cap, with the extra space onboard this cruiser I'll have this decoded by the time you get back from the _Montana_." Titus spoke with a grin.

"As long as you get something out of this morass I think we'll be fine." I was becoming somewhat frustrated with the lack of progress made, but I knew that until the Elites arrived with their ships we would be S.O.L. "Titus given on what Captain Daniels said how much longer should the Elites have to get here?"

"Well Cap, they should be here any-" Before he could finish twenty Elite ships jumped out of slipspace. "Minute. Impeccable timing." He said with an impressed tone.

"Titus send out a message to Fleet Master 'Zomusse's ship and have him position his ship near the insertion point, I'm going down the armory to gear up. You have ship command until I get back." It was finally time to get under way with finishing this op and get back home, but no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. Years with the ODST's taught me that lesson with deadly efficiency.

Before I shipped out for this op, Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood took me to the UNSC _Infinity_ , the largest ship ever built in a UNSC shipyard, to pick out two teams from their extensive War Games simulations. War Games is still the best devised way to train soldiers for combat with any number of hostiles from the parasitic Flood in Infection to standard skirmishes, called Slayer or Team Slayer, that could have you pick either the Sangheili or just pick yourself. However, Sangheili were removed after the Human-Covenant War to dispel any thoughts of hostility. There is even a territory capture mode and bomb disposal and planting. War Games had all the scenarios with none of the risk to the soldier's health. The two teams that I picked had the most experience with heavy combat and were some of the highest ranked in the professional sections of Slayer game types and they had been working with each other since they had been recruited due to the need for small groups of Spartans.

I approached the door to the armory to see Grizzly team getting Hunter and Wolfhound geared up.

"Alright, I want the team leaders for Hunter and Wolfhound on deck ASAP." It was time to get these recruits under way and ready for their first real deployment in the field.

Two recruits approached me. One was wearing black and orange Mark V MJOLNIR a classic armor choice for Spartan IVs and judging from the bulkiness was a man, the other was wearing red and white GUNGNIR and had the shapely curves of a woman's body.

"Which of you is the leader of Hunter team?" I asked. The recruit in the red and white GUNGNIR armor raised her hand.

"Sergeant Vera Asimov." The woman named Vera said in a slavic accented voice.

"And I take it the hulking monster in the Mark V armor is the leader of Wolfhound team?" I wasn't intimidated by the recruits size, but he was pretty big for a Spartan. The only other Spartan I could think of that was this big was Samuel-034, one of the original Spartans.

"You'd be correct in that assumption sir. Staff Sergeant Gregory Novak." He said in a western accent. He stuck out his massive hand which felt like a vise grip when I shook it.

"Good to have the both of you onboard." I said, "In an hour we're going to shove off in a Pelican towards the _Montana_ , so get your gear together and have your teams change their emblem to match yours so we know who's who out there." I wanted these teams to be familiar with my field procedures.

"Yes sir, Hunter team will be ready to go when you need us. What weapon types should we bring aboard?" Asimov said.

"Close quarters and space environments, so get yourselves any CQC weapon you prefer and a space pack so you can counter your spin if the gravity is out, hopefully it's not." I said, "If that's all you have then class is dismissed, see you at 1100 hours Spartans."

An hour later and Grizzly, Hunter and Wolfhound teams were ready and raring to go, all that was left was loading into the Pelican dropship. Pelicans were ideal for situations like this where we needed to have the cargo bay separate from the cockpit so we didn't decompress the entire ship, I only wished that we had some more armor plating between us and the cold vacuum of space.

"Alright Grizzly near the door, Hunter and Wolfhound at the back. Make sure you have your gear put together because we don't know what we're walking into." The klaxons went off to alert us that the hangar bay was opening. "Get in the Pelican it's time to rock it Spartans!" I said.

We piled onto the Pelican and strapped in. The pelican was lifted off the deck by metal claws and loaded to the take off point near the bay door. We felt the pelican shoot forward as the pilot gunned the thrusters and raced the pelican towards the _Montana_. I asked the pilot, a man by the name of Williams, to forward me the video feed from the external cameras so I could see 'Zomusse's ship, _Shining Light In Darkness,_ fire it's plasma beam at the starboard bulkhead I had marked as the insertion point. The beam was a brilliant lancing plasma sword that cut through the decks with the precision of a surgeon. I took the minor victory with a dose of salt. I had seen the same power gut and tear apart UNSC ships in battle. Williams had trouble maneuvering through the thick debris field. Ten minutes over what I preferred had counted on the mission clock when we arrived at the outer bulkhead door to the airlock.

Grizzly team piled out first from the Pelican. I arrived at the door first to open it, and get a good look inside before the rest of the Spartans followed in behind. Everything was clear, atmosphere looked good and the ship's gravity seemed up and running.

I opened the door for Grizzly and we entered in and waited for Hunter and Wolfhound to get in with us. Once they were in the door closed automatically the pressure was slowly equalized, the door opened with a soft pop and hiss.

"Time to get to work. Grizzly, we'll head straight for the bridge, I want Hunter to go down to Engineering and get the systems back up as best you can, lastly I want Wolfhound to head to medical and the crew quarters to find personal records. The crew must've left something behind for S and R." I said.

With that being said we switched off our comms and headed off into the dark halls of the gutted _Montana_.

* * *

Chapter Five

Spartan teams Grizzly, Hunter, and Wolfhound aboard derelict UNSC _Montana_

Military Date: January 18, 2557

Military Time: 1200 hours

I never liked going aboard derelict ships like this. They always had too many shadows and would creak and groan from the strained metal. Being in places like this made me think of the reports from the Marines on Alpha and Delta Halo. How they had lost so many so fast once The Flood had been released from their millennia old prisons.

Any feelings of fear were dispelled once we reached the bridge and were replaced with feelings of disgust and revulsion. The entire bridge was smeared with blood and bodies, all wearing UNSC uniforms both Marine and Deck Crew.

We had seen plenty of carnage in the War, but this... this was flatout carnage and murder. No mercy or thought went into this. Grant and James were whispering about something that involved a bet.

"Both of you shut your traps and look sharp. We got something moving by the main view screen." I moved quickly up ahead with Damara covering me. I pointed the barrel of my MA5D around and was grabbed by an unseen hand.

"It's a trap Spartan, _RUN_!" said the man on the floor. He fell to the floor unconscious as the bridge exploded into a firefight.

The space around the _Montana_ was filled with billions and billions of particles. A hard thing to comprehend for the human mind, thought Titus, watching through the hull cameras. Titus was on his usual rounds of scanning the surrounding space for any signs of ships when he picked up a little blip on the scanners. An insignificant little blip, but it piqued his interest nonetheless and he made a quick scan of it for later research, if Titus had been looking slightly to his left he might have noticed the small Forerunner Sentinel making an incision on the hull of one of the _Montana_ 's research ships, slowly extracting wiring that had been part of the ship's extensive computer logs.

"We've been engaged!" I yelled over the team frequency. Grant tucked and rolled up next to me and the wounded Marine while Josh and James had run for the cover of a bank of computer terminals. Damara was nowhere to be seen amidst the hail of bullets, I smiled, this was a good thing. My smiling was cut short by an inquisitive ambusher who fired at me with an older MA3 rifle.

I jumped out of the way just in time, but I still got nicked by a few lucky shots. I got up behind the Nav Officers station and saw a good line of fire towards the back side of the enemy. I fired with controlled bursts towards the group, but all that did was make them focus more intently on me and Grant. Five of them broke off and moved around the side of the computer bank where Josh and James were, but two of them were cut down by an unseen force which I assumed was Damara, the other three dropped down quickly and fired at Josh and James with everything they had. I saw Josh go down in a hail of bullets. James was dragging him towards the bulkhead for cover, when a pair of the enormous Mgalekgolo stormed in and smashed the ambushers to bits. One tried making a run for it but was cut in half by a Mgalekgolo shield. A gruesome display of pure strength and power.

"Grizzly team stand down we got friendlies." I said, adrenaline still coursing through my veins.

"Jeff I need help over here." Grant said still holding the injured soldier, who was no longer bleeding profusely but looked no better for wear.

"What's the damage Grant?" I asked. I had taken an extensive course in medical anatomy and first aid training.

"He's got some pretty bad internal damage from a stray shell but if we can get him back to the _Utah_ ASAP, he'll stand a much better chance." Grant said.

"Hang on our new friend might have a buddy, Seamus ain't looking too hot Cap," James said, "He got ripped into by those MA3's."

"Don't count me out just yet, it's just a flesh wound." Seamus said looking pale, but still alive enough to make a smile.

"Sorry Seamus, you'll be accompanying our injured friend back to the _Utah_." I said

"Sir yes sir." Seamus said.

With that all settled I took a good look at the bridge and surveyed the carnage that lay before me. The Nav computers were somehow still intact, but the rest of the terminals were either blown out by gunfire or were damaged when the _Montana_ was attacked, but hopefully the actual data banks had been spared. Aside from the mechanical carnage the physical carnage was a gut wrencher and I'll leave it at that.

I went over to the Nav terminals and entered in my codes to bypass the security measures so I could access the data banks. It all seemed to be there so I put a jump drive into the slot and downloaded everything from personal logs to medical files to what the crew ate, Titus could sift through all the junk easily. Once the download was done I went over to the hulking behemoths that were standing guard by the entrance to the bridge to ask them, using my suits translation software, where Fleet Master 'Zomusee was.

" _Greetings, my allies."_ I said, _"Where is Fleet Master 'Zomusee? I imagine a Sangheili warrior as mighty as him would want to revel in the victory."_

The Mgalekgolo to my right answered my question. _"Fleet Master 'Zomusee is aboard the_ Shining Light In Darkness _awaiting a message from his homeworld Sanghelios. Instead he sent one of his other Ship Masters, Shka 'Tilumee, to provide aid if needed and it was."_

" _Thank you."_ I switched off my translation gear and went back over to my team and I wasn't to see surprised to see Damara sitting down and checking over her weapons and gear. "Good of you to join us at last Damara, did you find more of those guys?" I asked.

"I had one of them cornered, but then your big friends over there knocked me over when they came charging in, when I got up they were nothing more than a bloody smear." She said with an edge of contempt in her voice.

"Well you know what they say; 'Close, but no cigar'." I said, "Hopefully the recruits haven't been having as much fun as we have."

I was wrong on that account. The recruits had encountered much heavier resistance than I had and were in pretty bad shape, each of their teams had five members and three of them were down while the other seven were running dry on ammo. Asimov and Novak had done their jobs right, they had moved everyone back as fast as possible towards the bridge, but they got cornered near a maintenance access hatch leading towards empty vacuum. Novak had just ran dry on ammo and was getting ready to throw his rifle at the first sorry SOB he saw, when he saw me and James running up behind the enemy.

"The cavalry has _arrived_." He yelled over TEAMCOM.

A few poor souls turned their heads to look behind them and saw hulking Spartans spattered with the blood of their comrades running right towards them. One of them did half a double take before I barreled into him and threw him into his compatriots.

Four of them got their bearings and fired at James and I with deadly accuracy. My shields flared and failed, the alarm ringing off in my helmet speakers. One of the enemy soldiers had me dead to rights in his iron sights, thankfully James was still up and about and knocked over my assailant with ease with the butt of his MA5D, firing a quick burst into his chest leaving a gory pit. I got up and went to work thinning out the enemies surrounding the recruits which was easy enough work with fifteen heavily trained Spartans. Or it _was_ easy work until a burly man rounded the corner carrying an M41 SPNKR missile launcher and fired it right at James and I. My mission clock read only two hours had passed.

Titus was busy monitoring the data sent over from the _Montana_ when he noticed a large explosion on the port side of the _Montana_ that sent the dead ship into a death roll akin to the crocodiles of the Amazon river. Coolly and calmly Titus initiated an Alpha alert to the rest of the _Utah_ battle group and to the _Texas_ , _Alaska_ , and _Massachusetts_. The explosion was timed poorly, with the eighty ships that made up the four battle groups all scrambling to get the spinning hulk of the _Montana_ under control no one noticed the flock of Forerunner sentinels that had lined up behind the UNSC ships.

Titus noticed them too late, they had already acquired targets across the entire fleet of ships and focused their fire on the smallest ships first and decimated the _Stalwart_ and _Paris_ class frigates with energy beams that were so intense they sliced through the Titanium-A battle plate as if it were a soft ocean foam. Eight of the frigates in the battle groups ignited with cross hatches of super-heated fire racing through the access ways burning any living thing inside. The Sentinels made short work of the frigates and focused on the command ships next, but were quickly stopped by a large EM pulse that fried their circuits. The ship captains and their AIs took no time to wonder who fired the nuke and quickly went about dismantling the sentinels one by one, until there was nothing left but scrap and circuits. With the short skirmish over and the battle groups having each lost half their frigates finally noticed the legendary UNSC cruiser that had detonated a star to beat a Covenant fleet.

* * *

I awoke to a startling sight. There were stars all around me and I was slowly spinning around in the vacuum of space. My HUD was slowly booting back up and from what I read from the read outs I had only been out for twenty minutes, my suit had over two hours worth of air in the tanks. My head was throbbing duly and I could faintly hear voices over my speakers that were calling out to all Spartan teams. I shook my head clear and my hearing came back.

My HUD was back up to full strength.

I took a quick look around and saw the _Utah_ , her battle group, the _Texas, Massachusetts,_ and _Alaska_ moving into position with their ships, only a single _Autumn_ -class was moving towards the _Montana_ the running-lights of her pelicans visible in the pitch-black space. I was confused by the sight, but then I noticed the enormous ship that was behind them, I immediately recognized the _Everest_ from all the documentaries made on Admiral Cole's battles against the Covenant.

"Spartan Kodiak, this is the UNSC _Autumn_ -class heavy cruiser, _Great Salt Lake_ of the _Utah_ battle group. We have sent out a ship to get you back to the _Utah_." I recognized the voice of Philip Young captain of the _Great Salt Lake_.

My question was still unanswered as a whole fleet of older UNSC ships jumped into view right behind the _Everest_. I couldn't believe the sight that was before me. Any ship in the UNSC archives it might have been there, and there was even an old Mk. 3 Firefly-class transport there. The old Firefly's were very popular amongst smugglers. A channel opened up and video was being played right from the bridge of the _Everest_. An elderly gentleman appeared on screen with graying hair, and despite his apparent age he looked as tough as a redwood and as strong as an Ox.

"This is Preston Cole of the _Everest_ , you are to shut down your weapons and prepare for boarding, if you do not comply I will be forced to destroy your ships."

* * *

Chapter 6

UNSC battle groups _Utah_ , _Texas_ , _Alaska_ , and _Massachusetts_ in uncharted space surrounded by multiple unknown ships of UNSC origin. SITREP reads contacts as friendlies.

Military Date: January 18, 2557

Military Time:1520 Hours

"I repeat, all UNSC designated ships power down your weapons systems." Cole was by no means threatening, but I sensed he wouldn't hold back on retaliation.

"All battle groups deactivate weapons and stand down." I said while still out in the vacuum of space, the ship that Captain Young had sent hadn't arrived yet. " _Everest_ , this Captain Jeff Mosdell of the cruiser _Utah_ , we have complied with your last order."

Cole's' face appeared in the upper left corner of my HUD. "Captain, I said all ships designated UNSC, that includes mine. I have no interest in fighting you, just an interest finding out what you and a decimated research group are doing this far out." Cole said.

A voice broke out over the the static silence that had fallen over the hundreds of ships, UNSC and Covenant, that was less than friendly. "Intruders detected in the vicinity of artifact, targeting solutions acquired." A blinding light came out of nowhere and quickly lanced towards the Elite ships, engulfing a five of them in a terrifyingly beautiful maelstrom of plasma and hard-light projectiles.

My confusion

* * *

Chapter 7

UNSC ships _Utah, Texas, Alaska,_ and _Massachusetts_ in uncharted space with formerly MIA UNSC cruiser _Everest_.

Military Date: January 21, 2557

Military Time: 0700 hours

The _Everest's_ bridge was an enormous cavern that gave an excellent view through the hardened view ports. There were consoles lining mostly every wall, the UNSC eagle that normally graced the walls had been replaced with the Insurrectionist fist and there were some of the UNSC eagles still on the walls, but their wings were "clipped" and they were shot through by arrows, a symbolic gesture I'm sure.

I entered into the bridge first followed by Silas and Jonathan and behind them was the captain from the _Massachusetts_ , Alastair Grayson. Alastair was an average sized man who had an air of regality due to his ancestry of nobles from England, and other areas of Europe, who had been members of a secret society of knights who had searched for the Holy Grail during the crusades of King Arthur. I had forgotten he had been assigned to come along with us as he rarely spoke and always acted on his own accord even though he wasn't in charge, but when it was time to get to business he was a hard fighter and a brilliant tactician.

Once all the captains and Ship Masters were seated, Admiral Cole presented us a space chart that showed us our current location and the edge of UNSC space. UNSC space spread out as far as the planet Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system and we were on the other side of the Universe near a system labeled as Lambda-51 by UNSC probes. What confused me was how had we covered so much distance in so little time?

One of the Sangheili Ships Masters spoke. "How have you Humans managed to go so far in such little time? Even our ships are incapable of such feats." He said.

Admiral Cole spoke now. "I may be able to explain that. We've been experimenting with technology that can manipulate the ebb and flow of the Slip Space tides." He said. "For years UNSC scientists have tried to make sense of the dimension known as Slip Space, but the normal spatial and physical laws that apply in normal space might as well not exist while in Slipspace. During the early days when humanity first accessed this dimension there were many problems when ships entered this wild dimension. Sometimes a crew man would disappear off a ship unexpectedly or an entire vessel would be lost."

I spoke up. "And you say you've managed to find a way to manipulate the Slipspace tides?"

Alastair looked over at me. "So these rogues, no offense Admiral Cole, without the vast capabilities of the UNSC, have managed to find a way to control Slipspace?"

Admiral Cole looked prideful, not cocky like a college athlete but more like a father who was proud of his child. "That's exactly what we've done. But I think that Captain Mosdell could do better to explain how this came about." He gave me a devilish grin and everyone in the room looked at me.

I stood up and pulled a datacrystal from my pocket and placed it into the computer. "Thanks for the trade off Admiral. As we all know studies have been made to find ways to predict and control Slipspace since Wallace Fujikawa and Tobias Shaw made the first Translight Drive, but only recently have the studies made any headway. A few years ago, studies were done with Slipspace after Dr. Catherine Halsey had recovered that crystal from the Forerunner ruins under ONI Castle Base on Reach." The computer display changed and showed multiple stills of the crystal and a few videos from helmet cams from Spartan Blue Team. "The crystal had special properties that affected the physical properties of anything that entered Slipspace. An ODST corporal that had survived the Alpha Halo incident destroyed it by covering it in C-7. He didn't live to see the fruits of his labor as the crystal exploded with such ferocity that it killed him instantly and nearly destroyed the _Gettysburg_ as well. A few shards remained intact, but Dr. Halsey took them and ran with a ship that had belonged to an Insurrectionist leader. When we recaptured her on the Forerunner Shield world of Onyx, now known as Ambrose, the top eggheads found that the crystal not only changed the physical properties of anything inside Slipspace, but they could displace them great distances in a matter of hours or days. These discoveries lead to further advanced Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Drives that could not only rip holes in the fabric of space and time, but could also move ships great distances greatly increasing our ability to travel the Galaxy." I closed down the files and pulled the crystal from the computer slot. "This is how we are able to travel such great distances in so little time." I directed that towards the Sangheili Ship Masters and 'Zomusee. "But what about your attempts Admiral?"

"Like I said we've actually been able to find a way to manipulate the gravity inside the Slipspace streams. Because of this we actually were able to send a probe all the way out to Luna in a matter of ten hours." Cole said.

Jonathan broke in, "So we've been _experimenting_ with this idea for years and you guys managed to get it down and sent a probe to Earth's lunar base without us detecting it?" He sounded skeptical of what Cole had said and I couldn't blame him, but it stood to good reason that Cole wouldn't BS us.

"Exactly Captain Daniels, but I won't lie to you and say we managed to do it all on our own. We had a lot of help from the Forerunners."

The Sangheili sat up and had renewed interest in the Admiral. Even 'Zomusee looked excited, if you can call a seven-and-a-half foot tall alien excited. They all started murmuring amongst themselves and finally 'Zomusee stood. "Fleet Master Cole, we would like you to explain your involvement with the Forerunners." He sounded genuinely excited and I was at a loss for the sudden emotion in the Sangheili's voice.

Cole took a minute to collect his thoughts. "Well, as most of you already know I took my leave in a manner most dramatic almost ten years ago. It took us a few years to get here and only recently have we actually been able to make a decent settlement on our new homeworld." He stopped to bring up a star map that showed the location of the homeworld. It was only a short jump from where we were currently. "This is Lambda Majoris, our home. It's the largest planet in this system, and as you can see it's very similar to Earth, but it's over five times the size so you can do the math as to how many people we could fit here and we only have a settlement of a few hundred and that's here." A large waypoint showed on the map that was in a large open plain that resembled the open plains of the midwestern Americas. From the old holo documentaries I had watched as a child I could almost see the large herds of Buffalo running free.

"Why did you pick an open plain for your settlement instead of a shielded mountainous area or a valley?" I asked.

"We picked this area because the annual rainfall is incredibly high and the soil is rich in nutrients that have some very interesting effects on plant growth, the soil seems to adapt to whatever crop is planted whether it be wheat, rice, tomato, or cotton." He pulled up some pictures that showed bounteous fortune that had befallen Cole and his people.

"Well that certainly makes life easier. But what about herd animals like cattle and sheep? I don't see any of those in your settlement."

"We tried searching for herd animals on Lambda, but our efforts were met with opposition." Cole pulled up a video log that was time stamped ten years earlier belonging to a former Marine named Edmund Danvers. The video started with Danvers running with a rifle in his hands, an MA5B by the looks of the HUD, constantly checking behind him as something large was howling and crashing through the foliage behind him. Danvers suddenly whipped around and fired a sustained burst with his rifle at something that looked like a dog with horns running along its back and large fangs like a saber tooth from the Ice Age on Earth. Danvers got back up to run but was knocked down by the dog-like creature and was mauled to death by it. Danvers screams of agony and pain were cut short by a loud _crack_. Cole shut off the vid log and a long silence enveloped the room.

One of the Elite shipmasters broke the silence first.


End file.
